Quigley Amazed at Getting Cruise Flick

By
AP
| Posted April 30, 2006, midnight

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Actress Maggie Quigley said she was seriously ill when she auditioned for "Mission: Impossible III" and was amazed that she got a key role in the film starring Tom Cruise, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Sunday.

Quigley, who lives in Hong Kong, said she found out she got the part when a floral basket arrived at her Los Angeles hotel with a card saying, "Welcome. Here's to a great mission," the South China Morning Post reported. Cruise's signature was the first one on the card, it said.

Quigley, known as Maggie Q in Hong Kong, where she got her acting start, plays Zhen, a member of Cruise's team of agents that hunts down an arms dealer.

The former model said she had to overcome a reputation of being a "giggly model" who made "cheesy films, bad films, OK films."

When she auditioned for "Mission: Impossible III," she said she was in the early stages of a kidney infection.

"I landed in L.A., alone, terrified, sick as a dog," she was quoted as saying. "I was so ill, I could barely remember what it was I had to do. I had uncontrollable shaking one minute, and I was sweating the next. But I realized right then I had 10 minutes to change my life. Either you bring it or you don't."

Quigley also starred in the comedy "Rush Hour 2" and Jackie Chan's "Around the World in 80 Days."

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